Whether They're Playing a Waitress or Cop, Stewardess or Doc, These Regal Women Are Ready to Rule Prime Time

What drew Buffy back to the small screen? "I missed it!" says Gellar, 34, who plays duplicitous twins. Plus, "for my child, I wanted to be in one place," she says of 23-month-old Charlotte. "She comes to the set every afternoon. Everyone loves her."

Maria Bello

Prime Suspect

NBC, Thursdays 10 p.m.

Helen Mirren won accolades playing Detective Superintendent Jane Tennison on British TV's Prime Suspect. But stepping into Mirren's sensible shoes for Prime's U.S. version wasn't the most daunting task for Bello, 44: "The biggest challenge is that I smoke 100 packs a day!" she says of filming action scenes as rough-and-tumble detective Jane Timoney, the lone female in her precinct. "I grew up with brothers and all boys in my neighborhood playing cops and robbers, so I'm used to it."

Kat Dennings & Beth Behrs

2 Broke Girls

CBS, Mondays 9:30 p.m.

The title says it all: Dennings, 25, and Behrs, 25, are down-on-their-luck Brooklyn waitresses who become roomies. "As an actor, you don't know when your next check is coming, so I understand that worry," says Dennings, who plays sassy Max. Behrs, as uptight Caroline, agrees: "Actresses are broke until you get crazy lucky-like I did with this job!"

Annie Ilonzeh, Minka Kelly & Rachael Taylor

Charlie's Angels

ABC, Thursdays 8 p.m.

Like the original '70s series, the focus remains on three beauties fighting crime. "If you look under the makeup on our legs, you'll see a ton of bruises," says Kelly, 31. But they aren't complaining: "It's great doing a job that keeps you fit," says Taylor, 27. "There's nothing worse than being on a treadmill like a little rat."

Zooey Deschanel

New Girl

FOX, Tuesdays 9 p.m.

Her character Jess Day, a newly single woman who moves in with three guys she meets on Craigslist, may be an emotional basket case, but Deschanel, 31, insists that in reality, she's a "fun roommate" with her husband, singer Ben Gibbard: "I like making things for everyone, like milkshakes!"

Applegate, 39, and Arnett, 41, play new parents (Rudolph, 39, costars as her kooky boss), and with all three stars bringing their small kids on-set, "there is poop everywhere!" says Applegate, who keeps daughter Sadie close by. "I'm obsessed with her."

Poppy Montgomery

Unforgettable

CBS, Tuesdays 10 p.m.

To play Carrie Wells, a former police detective with total recall of everything that has ever happened to her, Montgomery, 39, got into action-hero shape by "training like a crazy person," she says. "My arms are really buff now!" But not her own recall skills: "Ever since I had my son [Jackson, 3], my memory is a little fuzzy."

When TV viewers first fell in love with her as Summer Roberts on The O.C., Bilson, then 21, was playing a high school sophomore. Now as Zoe Hart, a young city-educated doctor transplanted to a country practice in Alabama, "I love that I'm playing my age," says Bilson, 30. "I feel more settled." To prepare for her role, Bilson witnessed an operation. "It wasn't the blood that was disturbing," she says. "It was the smell of the laser burning through the skin. I'm never having plastic surgery!"

Karine Vanasse, Christina Ricci, Margot Robbie & Kelli Garner

Pan Am

ABC, Sundays 10 p.m.

The '60s Jet Age takes fashionable flight with the stewardesses of Pan Am. The wardrobe, however, is grounded in reality. "I don't have to wear my girdle as much as everyone else," says Ricci, 31, "because my character always takes hers off and gets in trouble for it!"